Kimi Antonelli is set to end Italy's 73-year wait for an F1 champion. Here's why it's been so long

Kimi Antonelli is on the verge of becoming Formula 1's youngest-ever champion, and the first Italian to win the title since Alberto Ascari in 1953.For a country full of passionate racing fans, the 73-year wait for an Italian champ is puzzling. Over decades without a title contender to cheer, Italy's legions of passionate “tifosi” fans have worn red to support Ferrari as a team, rather than individual Italian drivers. Now the 20-year-old Antonelli, reportedly rejected by Ferrari as a child before joining Mercedes, is changing Italy's racing story.Ahead of Antonelli almost certainly securing the title Sunday in Mexico City, here why it's taken so long for an Italian to win again. The glory days of the 1950s, and why they endedItaly was the center of the racing world when the World Drivers’ Championship began in 1950.Just five years after the end of World War II, the fledgling Ferrari brand was one of a clutch of teams in Italian racing red fighting for wins.Italian Nino Farina won the fi